Monday, December 28, 2009

So, about that...

Umm, for clarification purposes. Sorry for dropping the "we're selling our house" news without any other details! I forgot that we hadn't really spilled the beans to family yet. I wasn't meaning to make you all suspenseful and worrisome.

First, no. I am not pregnant.

Second, yes. We ARE trying to sell the house.

Here's the dealio. When we bought our house the intention was to fix up the attic and make it into a master suite of sorts, so that we'd have a true 3 bedroom house. Turns out that when we had to upgrade from a fuse box to a breaker box, and replace the line into the house, an enormous hole was created, which showed rot underneath it. Thus, we re-sided the house. And the stairs were crumbling, so we had to replace them. And most of the wiring was horribly done, so 75% of the house has been rewired. And we fixed up the basement, then had to rip it out, waterproof it, and are currently re-finishing it. And the attic remains untouched. AKA, this house = money pit. As such, we decided to talk to our realtor before doing anything else to make sure we weren't wasting our money.

As it turns out, we are. Well... we're ok as it is now, but she basically advised us that if we are going to spend any more money fixing this house up, we won't get it back, and we'd be better off just buying something else. The improvements we're making have just outgrown the neighborhood and location. Which we kind of thought was the case. We've only been here 3 years, which is not as long as we thought. But, we would like to have more kids in the near future, and with Emma being such a lousy sleeper, the thought of her having to share a room is somewhat frightening. And the thought of having to share OUR room for more than a few months is REALLY frightening. So.

We are just trying to take advantage of the market while we can. At the price our realtor thinks we can get, we'll still be making money on the house. So, it just makes sense for us to get out now and upgrade to something better while the prices of better homes is lower, too. For the future house, square footage isn't necessarily a big concern. It's just layout and number of bedrooms. An extra bathroom would be nice, too. Plus, we're thinking more longterm (as in forever) for this house, so school district is more of a consideration, too. As far as selling our house in this market...well...we're hopeful. Our realtor was really impressed with the improvements we've made, and thinks that for first time home buyers this house would be a steal. And since the government is still handing out incentives for first time home buyers, this could be good for us. We are hoping to have it on the market ASAP, because in both of the last two years our realtors company has had the most sales for the year in January and February. So, ya know, I'd like to get in on that. Plus, she also said that for some reason people think the spring is the best time to put a house on the market. So, while the buyer pool remains relatively constant throughout the year, in the spring there is a large influx in properties available. So, we just really want to stay ahead of the game there, as well.

So, there's stress trying to finish things up. We have the basement to finish, some fixes in the garage, a few minor fixes in the attic, and then CLEANING and ORGANIZING which will take quite some time. The good thing is that we don't really have to sell. So if it needs to sit on the market for a while, that's ok. We're not going broke, or moving across country. So if we need to wait, it's no big deal.

And that's that. Sorry for the waiting:)

2 comments:

Deb said...

And she could even move closer to me. Snort.

lauren said...

Yeah I will admit - pregnancy crossed my mind! I thought she needs a bigger house!! You are so smart to have talked to a realtor - it is the time to sell and buy. If you can make $ even better!! I hope you sell fast - although you probably always keep your house clean and it won't stress you out. I would say you need to stay in the ward - but who am I to talk!! Good luck!!